UNDERHAND
by SetsunaNoroi
Summary: Now grown, Frisk's top priority is monsterkind. She'd do anything for them, but Sans is tired of the resets and her working herself to death. When she starts receiving odd messages, Sans is flung into messed up worlds and meets a ghost from his past he'd kill to forget. All he knows is he has to save his wife. Dr. Gaster is not to be trusted after all. UF, US and other AUs featured
1. Static

Alright, my very first serious Undertale story. I've had this idea bubbling around in my head for a while now along with a lot of other series I've been putting work into lately, so I decided to give this a go. It's been a lot of fun doing the research on this, playing the game out to refresh my memories, seeing different dialogue and pouring over tons of theories on unexplored characters, along with a few theories on the different Undertale multiverses. Just the notes on all of this took quite a bit of writing as I formed my own theories and fine tuned my ideas. I also did some research into some scientific theories about just how quantum physics worked and how multiple universes could exist, along with a few other things that needed some tweaking.

For example, Frisk. I also looked into a lot of things concerning law for her, and I did my best to portray the actual duties of an ambassador and just how many struggles there would be for a newly freed people. Granted, there are a couple things right off the bat that I should admit to. One, I'm largely basing this off American politics but it's not really our Earth since there are differing histories and technology in various locations of the story. While there is a basis in fact, I do take some liberties just for artist license. The idea of the ambassador possibilities was just too good to pass up, even if I'm no expert on law.

As a heads up, Frisk is female in the story. Some see Frisk as male, some see female, some see genderless. Toby Fox made it so we could interpret as we like though I have seen interviews that were set during early development how Frisk was a girl before she was made genderless for the game, and that's just how I see her. When I first played, I had no idea and girl just kind of stuck in my head. I don't think this will offend anyone, but if it does than this fic might not be for you. Chara, for what little is mentioned of the character, is going to be male. Though he doesn't come up much.

Only a couple more things before I bore everyone to death before the story even starts. There will be entry notes from a certain character before every chapter. I had considered putting them in the proper font but decided against this for two main reasons. First, while it doesn't really affect the plot immediately, it will be important to know what is being said for future points. I don't want to confuse people with my foreshadowing by making it illegible. Some sites like fanfiction dot net makes it impossible to just copy from the screen and paste elsewhere. This is done in order to keep thieves from taking work that does not belong to them and reposting on their own account, a worthy goal, but it would also make it impossible for anyone who wants to translate easily to just copy it and then put it through another font to read it, instead having to translate letter by letter. This suddenly makes something mysterious and fun into something annoying. Not what I want at all. Secondly, the sense of mystery is not all that important. The font would have given it away, and even without it, who is talking is so obvious that it's pointless to try to be vague on the matter. Of course the cover art makes it pretty clear too, and as a fast point thank you so much to the artist who made it for me, Kaitogirl on deviantart. She has an Underfell comic there that I strongly suggest you read. It's great and she updates several pages every weekend so it's progressing very well. However, if you guys would prefer to see the entries in Wingding just for fun, let me know and I'll change it. For now, normal font it is.

Besides that, I do not own Undertale. Toby Fox does. This is simply a tribute to a world and characters that I love. Also, as a warning. Yes, Frisk and Sans are married in this and are adults. Expect adult situations and relationships. There will not be anything explicit, but the fact of the matter there are several adult couples in the story and things like sex will come up. This is rated teen and I will not go over that but there are a couple things little kids shouldn't be reading. I'd say you're fine if you're about sixteen or up, especially since you obviously have access to the internet. That all being said, please enjoy.

Entry #1

I have decided to start these series of notes due to recent events. It's not often that I have new work to focus on. Handling things like the Core has long since become maintenance, easily handled by the day to day staff. Nothing terribly engaging. I suppose some might feel it's better this way, to have resources worked out, power supply and demands stable, food taken care of and all our other needs handled now. However, the mind is something that needs to be engaged. Without new problems to face, new puzzles, the mind becomes stagnate after all. With no new projects, would there even be a need for a Royal Scientist?

The human that fell through the barrier is quite fascinating. He is in observation right now, but I haven't been able to learn much as of yet. The fall seems to have broken a few bones, which I have had set and he has been sedated. Until he regains consciousness, I don't want to try too much in order to heal him. After all, most humans do not have magic like we do so I'm not sure how our method of healing will cause his body to react. It will be something to study, no doubt when the human wakes up.

The young prince is the one that found him. I'm hoping His Majesty will allow me to further question him on what he's seen and exactly what happened. As it is, the data I've gotten is barely enough. The prince is young, so I doubt there's much I can get from him. After all, he could barely understand things like the magic of the barrier yet, but certainly I could piece together something with his help and whatever the human can tell me when he wakes up.

We haven't ever had a human here before. In so many years, centuries. I've never even seen one myself. Who wouldn't be excited by the prospect?

Actually I suppose several wouldn't be. His Majesty has ordered this a secret for now for the sake of security. Only a select number of the staff and the royal family knows about the human so far. I suppose after the war, it would make sense such things would cause panic but that was all centuries ago, and he is so small. I don't honestly see what trouble one human could be… and honestly I find myself doubting the words of our ancestors that a single SOUL is strong enough to destroy all of us.

Surely if that was the case the humans would have simply wiped us out, not driven us away.

Hmm, I seem to be rambling now. I will stop the recording here.

Chapter 1: Static

Five in the morning was hardly a time to be awake for anyone. Night still blanketed the suburb, stars twinkling up in the dark sky. Most people in the city were sleeping, the area still and quiet. Few were up and moving at this time, leaving it almost desolate. In the quiet area there was a house, much like the others around it, small and square but it stood out like a sore thumb in spite of the similarities. The most striking thing about it of course was the snow on the roof and yard, cleaned off from the driveway but otherwise piled high around the house despite the fact it was in the middle of June. Snowmen and an igloo sat proudly out in front of the house, defying the summer heat as it had always since the family who lived there had moved in. Children seemed to love it, along with the almost tacky decorations hanging off the house, anything from a pirate flag on a pole sticking out from the roof to brightly painted gnomes and wind chimes of varying sizes all over the porch roof that always somehow played a piece of musical melody instead of a chime no matter what direction the wind seemed to blow or how hard it was. Horns, a piano, drums, anything but a soft jingle could be heard when the wind breezed past. It was no wonder how often they sneaked into the yard to play, often despite parent's objections that it was rude to go into the yard without permission.

Despite the oddities, the family inside was well liked by most of the people who knew them. The flares of obvious magic around the house had made everyone a little on edge at first since it was the only family to have monsters in it on the block, but after several years of living in the area, everyone had kind of gotten used to it. Though it was still considered a bit of an amusement whenever someone new moved in or a person visited friends or family in the area and saw the place for the first time. It wasn't unheard of to hear children and even adults bragging to newcomers that, oh yes there was a monster living in the area, known him for years and he makes great hotdogs for the summer barbeques. It had become something of a fun event to brag about it while whoever was hearing it gawked at the strange little house.

No one was staring right now though. In fact, the street was empty of humans and monsters. Things were still in the house as well, dawn not even bothering to approach yet, but it didn't mean that everyone inside of the house was asleep.

The alarm clock suddenly flared to life, blaring a harsh beeping in the otherwise silent room, the red letters glowing in the darkness. A hand reached out and hit the button to shut it off, silencing it immediately. The alarm hadn't really been needed, since Frisk had long since gotten used to getting up at early hours, a habit that just came with her work. Her eyes had opened several minutes ago, waking up before the clock had gone off and just laying in bed as she relaxed for those last few minutes she could before she had to get up.

Sitting up, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and glanced over her shoulder at her bed mate. Still fast asleep it seemed. She smiled softly at the sight. A full train could come through their room before he woke up. For a second, she considered shaking him awake in order to let him know she'd be getting up now, but there really didn't seem to be a point. It was the weekend after all. He deserved a chance to sleep in. Instead, she just leaned in, giving him a soft kiss on his skull before getting out of the bed and her feet padded over the cold, wooden floor as she stripped out of her nightgown and made her way to the bathroom.

The water took a moment to heat up before she stepped inside of the spray, letting the water wash over her. It was a good way to start the day, letting the hot water help her relax and get her ready for her oncoming schedule, mentally going over her checklist of things she had to get taken care of. It helped her keep organized while saving time as well. Hardly a day went by when she didn't have something she had to get taken care of, her career often leaving her very busy, so moments like this were cherished.

"Let's see," she mused. "Mmm, emails to look over, and I have to make sure the scheduled times are correct. I'll have to call Undyne and see if she'd be willing to sit in with me for this meeting. I'm going to need her expertise on the matter. If anyone could talk sense into General Jegness it would be her."

She sighed a little as she scrubbed the soap over her skin, letting it sud all over her before she moved to her hair. It had gotten long and thick since she'd been a child with a sloppy and uneven cut. A lot had changed for her in the twelve years since she'd fallen to the Underground, a little ten year old girl equipped with nothing but her willpower and desire to get away alive. She'd grown up a lot since then, both physically and mentally, her experiences shaping a lot of her life as she'd grown up. When she was finally finished she shut the water off, the air feeling cold in comparison to the heated stream she'd been under just moments ago. She groped out for her towel just beyond the curtain, feeling confused when she couldn't find it. The steam pouring out into the bathroom from the stall was making it a little hard to see as she peered around for it.

"over here, hon," a familiar, deep voice called out.

"Sans?" she asked as she looked over at the skeleton. Sure enough, he was standing there with the fluffy, white towel clasped between his phalanges, a broad grin with his pearly white teeth somehow looking wicked to her. "Sans, the towel?"

"mmmm, i don't know. i kind of like the view. seems a shame to cover it up," he replied, but she only laughed. What a flirt. Though it was cute, she was going to be busy today.

"I have work to do," she stated, holding her hand out expectantly and though he did roll his pupils in his eye sockets, the towel still ended up in her grip.

"Thank you."

"is that why you're up so early?" he asked as he yawned. "honey, it's sunday morning. what could you possibly have to do today?"

"Mostly prep work," she admitted as she dried herself off. "There's a hearing coming up soon. I told you about it, remember?"

"mmm? which one?" he asked her.

Frisk arched an eyebrow at her husband, her expression a bit annoyed. She had mentioned this over dinner, she was sure she had. Then again, he'd been pretty tired as they'd eaten in front of the tv, cuddling and watching Mettaton. The robot had become a pretty big hit on the surface, and he was beyond smug about it. It would be a bit irritating whenever he came over to brag about it if he weren't genuinely entertaining. She wondered if Sans had drifted off when she'd mentioned it, warning him she'd be busy for the day. It was pretty easy for him to fall asleep after all.

"Well, as you know, monsters have been campaigning for a long time to join the military," she explained. It was impossible not to know that part. It had been on the news for the last year. A lot of monsters had been a sentry or members of the Royal Guard. There wasn't really a need for such a force now though, especially on the surface with peace between monsters and humans, but it had left a lot of monsters with certain skill sets with nothing to really do.

It was no surprise petitions had been passed around, plenty of monsters asking for the right to serve in the country's military instead but there had been some opposition.

When monsters had come to the surface, there hadn't been a great welcome for them. It had been a shock to say the least to the humans, Mt. Ebbot's barrier suddenly going down and a group of monsters emerging and coming down the mountain. It wasn't surprising after all. Even though it had been centuries since the war, the legends and history lessons had stuck around. Monsters were perfectly capable of taking a human soul, to become a near unstoppable god. With claws, sharp teeth, magic and even more unlisted natural weapons, plenty of people had been more than a little nervous. Frisk had done her best to explain, to tell the ones that had rushed around them that nothing was wrong. The barrier had been broken and monsters wanted to simply come back to society.

It had been frankly awkward when the police had been called and she'd found herself questioned, asking her if she was alright, if she'd been taken against her will and kidnapped. She'd been gently but insistently taken away from Toriel, and while the female boss monster had found it terribly insulting, Frisk has assured her it was okay and that if they cooperated it would all be just fine. She'd explained to the authorities that she had come to the mountain and fallen on accident, and how the monsters had helped her get back to the surface. She'd fibbed a lot, telling the police how nice everyone had been and how they weren't violent at all. Well… it had been technically true, even if it had taken a lot of effort for her to make it that way. No one needed to hear her say how many times she'd been killed and hurt. It would only get everyone in a panic, and they all had ended up polite to her at the end. She hadn't been lying really, just giving an abridged version.

Besides, telling the police how she'd actually died more times than she could count and had simply come back to life by twisting time to her advantage for survival would just get her locked up somewhere. Why get into it? The simpler version had been better for everyone involved.

Of course, explaining how she'd actually been in the social services had been kind of weird. They'd been sure she'd gone missing on purpose, had not simply gone out playing with the other children on a field trip and had gotten lost from the rest of the group. They thought she was some run away, made even weirder when Toriel expressed interest in adopting her.

For the longest time, the monster race had been made to wait in the Underground. Only Toriel and Asgore had been allowed to stay in town, along with Undyne and the others that had left the mountain with Frisk. An explanation had been given that the other monsters were staff of theirs, bodyguards and the like. Considering the authorities were technically dealing with royalty, it had been allowed. Frisk had been lucky that no one had wanted to start any kind of incident and done their best to be cordial even when insisting that the situation had to be fully understood before anything could be done.

Months had gone by while things had been discussed. Word quickly spread over the news about monsters escaping the mountain, coverage on it almost everywhere. People had been starved for information on what was going on and soon the whole country, the whole world, was watching Ebott for any kind of new information.

Set up in a hotel, the monsters had been told they could see Frisk any time they wanted, but that she had to go home. Politicians had come to Ebott City to figure out what to do, and had frankly laughed when Toriel and Asgore had explained that Frisk needed to be there for negotiations as the ambassador. She was just a little girl, a child, but they had relented when talks went nowhere without her present. Frisk had found out at the same time as the politicians that to monsters, age was rather immaterial. After all, depending on the sub-species, aging rates and life expectancies were vastly different. Toriel and Asgore were essentially immortal without a child, reptilian creatures living centuries, while some creatures like bunnies or other mammals could live anywhere from twenty years to a hundred depending on the breed. Numbers, the royals had explained, were pointless to them and individual maturity and abilities were judged instead. In their eyes, Frisk had proven herself more than capable to be a peacekeeper and they wanted her and no one else to represent them.

It had just been easier to allow in the end, and Frisk was named official ambassador of the monster race.

It hadn't meant it had been easy though. Monster laws were rather… well, lax in comparison to human's. Hundreds of years had gone by and for the most part monsters had stayed the same. Knowledge were a bit lacking in certain areas, citizenship was just where you lived and if you moved than it was no big deal, and things like income taxes flew right over their head. Frisk hadn't been much better. She was human after all and while she did know a few things as common sense, borders and treaties and all sorts of other things made her head spin.

It had been obvious very quickly that monsters and Frisk were not really ready to handle this kind of thing, that the human world had advanced a lot past the middle ages since entrapment and things were going to need a lot of adjustments before any real progress was made. At best they'd been able to secure official ownership of the mountain and a city began to be constructed on the side of the mountain, Newest Home. It'd been impossible to persuade Asgore to name it anything else, but at least had been the first steps in securing peace, but it had left Frisk with a very clear message.

She had a lot of work ahead of her, and she had to get prepared fast. These men and women in their suits, with paperwork and fancy terms that she couldn't hope to understand had confused her. She was just a kid in her eyes, easy to take advantage of. Toriel had done most of the actual negotiations, polite in her manner of speech and sweet, but firm enough to make it sure it was understood that she was a queen and that she was not to be lied to or hoodwinked. She wanted to know what she had to do in order to be allowed to keep Frisk and what they had to do in order to secure a home for themselves. Frisk did her best to help, but there were some meetings that had just left her feeling stupid and confused.

So, she had decided to fix it. She wasn't going to sit around and be useless, not when the monsters needed her. She'd been asked to be ambassador, and she was going to do the best job she could. A simple elementary school student, she was ill equipped to handle things like laws and politics, but that didn't mean she couldn't learn, and she had an advantage on her side that few knew about.

She could still save and reset.

The child had never really understood what such a power was, or why she even had it. Something about her had been special, Flowey had told her that much, but she knew little else. She'd learned a lot of what she knew by experimentation, trial and error while still under the mountain. Turning back time, rewinding it, make things different. She'd gone down so many paths and done so many things a million different ways, trying to find a way to free her friends. Mt. Ebott was flush with magic, and she'd assumed when she left that the abilities would leave her. It hadn't, and it seemed to her a perfect weapon to use in the campaign for her friend's and family's freedom.

She took to studying with a passion she'd never had before. She'd never been anything more than a solid C student, but she hit the books with everything she had. When Toriel had been granted to act as a social home for Frisk, the little girl begged the goat woman to help her with her homework and to tutor as much as she could. It hadn't been easy at first, having little love for schoolwork, but she pushed herself to know as much as she could as fast as she could.

Then she reset. Over and over again. She wanted to get through classes quickly, to skip grades. Toriel praised her as being a natural genius, having no idea of the hard work Frisk had to go through to learn enough to just take the test and be pushed forward. She didn't allow herself to start over from the beginning each time. It would look suspicious, she was sure, and she did want to grow up. She didn't want to see everything monsters were working for get wiped away every time, but she couldn't allow progress to be too slow either. In only five years, she gotten through elementary, middle, and high school by testing out and skipping several grades before she had started in college, eager to get a law degree and be seen as an equal to the men and women who negotiated the rights of monster kind.

Political law, international interests, history of the monsters, she studied it all, and every few months would go back a couple months to make it seem as if she were simply a fast study. Life passed so slowly because of it and over time she lost track of just how long her childhood had actually been. It all sort of blurred together, and while she did feel slight guilt over making the world dance to her tune, it was for the good of monster kind. She had to be properly prepared.

Getting her bachelor's degree at seventeen, taking the LSAT, moving on to a Juris Doctor degree, it had all been exhausting, but rewarding and at eighteen she'd been a fully instated lawyer after passing her BAR exam. She'd never felt so proud of herself, doing it all despite her young age and was eager to use her education to her full advantage. Over time it had been less about forcing herself to learn what she needed to know, and becoming genuinely good at it. The young woman found she liked studying with such rewards waiting for her, and that once she understood the lingo, talking in negotiations was no longer intimidating but just another form of tactic. She'd learn to fight for her life in the Underground and this was no different to her. Say the right thing, do the right action, and things would fall into place in her and monsterkind's favor. Of course, negotiations hadn't simply stopped while she sped her way through school, but the more she learned, the easier it became.

Made easier was the fact that after the initial shock of monsters suddenly coming back, most humans were actually very welcoming to the change. Social media sites went crazy over the news, many people young and old coming to Ebott just for a change to glimpse the creatures taught only about in history. Pictures and stories spread of people meeting a monster, how cool it was and how nice they seemed, nothing like they had expected. Monsters also had a lot to offer as well that got them a foothold in the world. Gold was everywhere in the mountain, along with silver and uncut riches in the rocks. What was seen as simple 'stars' or paltry decorations to the monsters were revealed to be highly valuable in the common market. Many monsters with simple businesses or jobs found overnight that they were pretty well off in comparison to humans. A gold standard was explained to them, trade was established, and the more monsters were allowed to integrate with society, the more humans learned just what amazing advances monsters had for themselves. Technology was behind in almost every regard, but the magic they had amazed people.

Things like food quickly made the news. It shocked people to know a simple thing like a cookie or piece of candy could instantly heal injuries, more complicated food able to stitch wounds together immediately and even cure some mild sicknesses. Doctors and reporters flocked to the city of monsters, eager to see the marvels and spread them around if possible.

In it all, was Frisk. Even as she studied, she kept to her duties. She was asked to mediate for almost everything. Trade, services, citizenship and any other matter that came up concerning relations between monsters and humans. Just about every single matter that occurred came to her attention, asking advice or to help with one thing or another. Human voices joined monsters in the cry for equal rights, and while there was opposition by those who had no interest in change, change was indeed happening.

Now, a fully grown woman and more than equipped to handle matters much more serious than sitting in a questioning room with police officers and a social worker, fumbling to explain where she'd been the last few weeks when she'd fallen into the monster's home, she found herself tackling much bigger issues on the rights for monsters.

They'd spread out a lot over the years, moving into human cities, getting jobs, settling down, making friends and experiencing real freedom. They'd been seen as full citizens after only a year of emerging, and had been given the right to vote and become involved in politics a few years later. Population started to go up, no longer under a mountain with limited space and resources, and while there were complaints about 'nice neighborhoods getting tainted by monsters moving in,' more people were unaffected or worried about such matters. The first time a komodo dragon had made headlines by becoming the first monster police officer, he had gotten untold amount of support when he'd stopped a robbery on just his first month on the job, able to get into the bank via the vents and drop down on the unsuspecting robber and sink his teeth into the human, pumping his venomous anticoagulant magic and thinning the perp's blood so fast he'd simply passed out on the floor.

The pictures of the people leaving the bank unharmed, some of them families with children too little to be in school yet, hit the new feeds and everything from headlines to hashtags came in support of the monster. Frisk been honored the meet the hero, and he'd gushed over meeting her as well, finding it amazing what he saw as just his job getting so much support from so many people.

"I'm no hero," he'd told everyone who interviewed and spoke with him. "It's my job and duty to protect everyone under the law, monster or human, and I would do it again in a heartbeat because it's the right thing to do."

It had been a goldmine of good faith, and the more time went on, the more humans were more than happy to have monsters on their side than against them. Of course, it didn't mean it was all perfect. There were still plenty of ignorant people out there, as well as monsters. Hate crimes still happened, and some of the things Frisk was asked to oversee or clean up sickened her. Some monsters still wanted war, or went over to violent crime. Monsters who just wanted to live their lives would get ambushed, hurt by gangs or by humans who were afraid. It was far, far from perfect but there were more that just wanted peace, that just wanted to be able to live with the other race normally. Bumps in the road aside, things were going well for both sides. It was more benefiting to work together than to fight.

Still, rights had to be won the legal way. Bills and laws took time, not to mention acceptance from the ones passing such laws. Even with as much progress had been made over the years, there was still a very long way to go. No amount of resetting could get those to go through the channels any faster, but it didn't mean she couldn't go in as prepared as possible to help it along.

Like… say for example resetting when the vote of the Supreme Court and the Joint Chiefs of Staff had gone against her in this matter. She just hadn't been able to convince enough of them the benefits. Part of her understood. The fact was that human souls were still capable of making monsters into gods. To absorb a soul, even one of a comrade that died near you, a simple accident, could be a disaster. Allowing monsters in the military, to be part of war, it just wasn't safe in their minds. They'd completely shut down the proposal. This time she decided to aim lower, to make a more reasonable request, to be part of the military but in a non-combat role. She'd poured over books on the history of differing races and women being allowed to serve, the progression that had been made over the years, and decided to go by that. All kinds of soldiers were perfectly accepted now, and she hoped a similar path would lead that way for monsters.

She had to make sure she was ready to do this though. No matter how many times she had to do it.

"are you doing an appeal?" he asked her curiously, causing the woman to freeze suddenly as she dried off her hair. It wasn't easy to avoid his gaze, and she hid her face quickly underneath the towel, trying to keep up airs of just cleaning up while she did her best to hide her guilty expression.

"Ah… no," she admitted. "This is… this is the first..."

"frisk," he said, his tone a bit clipped now instead of holding simple curiosity. "tell me you didn't."

"I'm sorry!" she said quickly. "This is important to so many people, monsters and humans alike. I have to make sure that it passes legislation. I just have to."

"you reset? i knew it!" he accused. She flinched at his angry tone, hating when he was mad at her. It always made her feel terribly uncomfortable.

Somehow Sans could sometimes tell when things were off. Not every time. Most often, he never even noticed a skip in time, going back and redoing things without a word. Sometimes he could sense it though and whenever it happened he never liked it. She had no idea how he had this ability and he'd refused point blank to share whenever she'd asked or tried to find out. While he had no way to manipulate time himself with the resets, not like her, or previously Flowey, he could still just… know somehow. Déjà vu, memories and flickers of things in his mind. Apparently he'd learned a long time ago not to question it, that when things like this happened more often than not the cause was the very fabric of time and space being torn apart and messed with instead of his mind simply playing tricks on him.

It made him both paranoid and incredibly irate whenever he caught her, and he was looking downright angry right now.

She frowned and ran her hand through her hair, knowing what was coming before he could even say anything. This wasn't a new song and dance to her, and she held up her hand before he could continue on.

"Okay, first things first," she said firmly, "I will admit to what I did. Yes, I did reset. The vote went against us. It was a pretty bad loss too, only a few voted in favor of monsters serving in branches of the military. I screwed it up. I didn't do enough to convince them about it. I've decided this time to use both examples of the Royal Guard and previous examples of inclusion in the military for other people in order to-"

"first things first right back at you. i know that, cause i remember it. hence the reason i caught you. secondly, that is not the point, frisk," he interrupted. "you can't just go back in time every time some little thing doesn't go your way."

"Little thing? Sans, people want to make their livelihood in the military. It should be a basic right for them. That's not little," she insisted.

"all right, all right. fine," he conceded. "wrong term, but the facts are the same. you could have appealed. you didn't have to go back to… how far did you go back?"

"To the beginning of the hearing over the matter. It starts in two days, Tuesday morning."

"that… that was four months, frisk!" he cried out. "you went back four months?!"

"I don't need you yelling, Sans," she said as she moved past him to go leave the bathroom. She was starting to feel trapped in the small room, her skin prickling as he stared after her. There was no way she was going to have this discussion right now, and certainly not with him getting so upset over it. It was impossible to face him this way, finding it all too easy to feel uncomfortable around him like this. "If you want to talk, then that is fine but I'm not going to hear it like this."

He followed after her as she went to the bedroom to get dressed, and while it was clear he was still upset, he took a couple calming breathes to relax. He wasn't really the type to get mad easily, and even when he did, it never took long for him to calm down. It just went to show just how badly her abilities bothered him that he could get so worked up over it.

Still, she was surprised and worried that he remembered such a large gap. That had never happened before. More often than not it only happened when she went back a day or two, or simple time changes, like when she'd been running late for a flight and had forgotten her phone somehow. It'd just been easier to reset a short hour and bring it with her than to turn her car around to go get it, though the way Sans had jumped when she'd suddenly come out of their bedroom when he knew she'd already left had made it obvious he'd known what she'd done. It had never happened before over such a long period of time before, and that kind of worried her.

"look, hon, i know you're just trying to do what you think is right," he said as he walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He rested his forehead on her shoulder and she felt herself relax against him, sighing out softly as the tenseness left her like steam blowing out from some vents. She leaned against his body, a little shorter than her own by a few inches, but stable and warm with magic holding him together. "i get it, i really do. this is important to you, but you know how I hate the resets. you're going to hurt yourself one of these days. don't you think you're spreading yourself a little thin, being so busy on top of always changing things? you're gonna end up just like a car."

"A… a car?" she asked, feeling confused.

"yeah, cause you'll break down from being too 'tired'," he said playfully, causing her to giggle despite herself. His humor was as horrible as always, but at the same time it was something she just loved about him. "seriously though, you are working yourself so hard. even without the resets, i'd be worried about you. this keeps up and you're gonna make yourself sick or something."

"I know," she confessed. "I said I'd stop for all the little things, but this was so major-"

"you could have filed for an appeal," he stated clearly.

"I could have… but it would have been so low of a chance that it'd work that I-"

"frisk, you are not going to convince me you did the right thing," he said. "sorry, but you're not. there are other ways than just rewriting history whenever you feel like it. let things progress naturally. you don't have to force it so often."

"Says the lazy skeleton," she murmured in defiance, but she was already starting to feel bad. This had always been a point of contention between them, and it seemed he was starting to remember more and more often lately. Frisk had no idea why, but it was obviously bothering him that she kept doing it. Who knew how many resets he'd had because of Flowey, how many hells he'd seen or how many times he'd killed the flower or had been killed in return? Even if Frisk used her abilities for good, it still stuck with the skeleton. "I'm sorry. I was just trying to fix things. The odds were just more in the favor of monsters if I started over."

"says the overworked human," he replied right back to her before his hands moved to her hips, resting on the towel, but slowly the tips of his bones rubbed the fluffy fabric against her skin. "well, i think you could afford to make it up to me."

"I… Sans, I'm going to be busy," she tried, though squeaked a little when he nibbled at her neck.

"no, i think i'm going to keep you here with me for a while. make sure you don't get naughty and reset again," he purred. She felt a puff of breath right against her ear and she shivered despite herself. It still amazed her how he could even do that without lungs, but she'd long since learned not to question the makeup of his body.

"I have no reason to reset," she informed him softly before the towel slipped off from her body as he slowly tugged it away. "I'm-"

"shhh. just come to bed," he urged as he gently pulled her along. "it's early, and we both know you know what's coming with your work anyway. can you honestly tell me you can't afford to waste a couple hours?"

"That long? Someone is feeling confident," she said with a roll of her eyes, even though she knew his stamina could more than handle it when he wanted to. Lazy as he was, it seemed certain things they did motivated him properly.

"keep mouthing off, and i'll make it last longer, just to waste your precious work time," he threatened with a grin. She sunk down onto the bed with him, finding it hard to resist, before she just decided to roll with it. He always could get her to agree after all.

Perhaps he was just distracting her. Both of them didn't really like arguing with one another, but this was far from the first time it had come up. He'd tried to persuade her to stop more times than she could count, which is why she preferred he not remember. Really, it was for the best in the long run, but he never saw it that way. It's why she tried to quit so often, assured him she'd let it go and only use it when she needed to. It… it never stuck, but she tried and he never seemed to hold it against her for long. This tactic seemed to be a favorite of his, to make the argument just go away and focus on something else.

He never did like to face any kind of situation head on but could she blame him? They both knew this would just be a stalemate again. It was in his nature anyway, to distract and dodge matters close to the heart.

As the bed creaked as he climbed on top of her, she decided she didn't want to fight it. If he didn't feel like arguing, she wasn't going to pursue the matter either. Instead she let herself go as he kissed her, her fingers sliding up to his ribs underneath of his shirt. How simple it was to let go, to just indulge. He made it so easy, and with him it was one of the few times she could just stop thinking about everything. The way he swept responsibilities away, discarded fate like it didn't even matter, his devil may care attitude in the face of everything… it was something she could never do herself and yet secretly yearned for. He seemed so easy going, able to accept the world as it was. She could never be that strong. Everyone depended on her, needed her.

"hey," he breathed to her as he slipped his clothing off, her watching him as if in rapture. "you're still thinking too much. i can tell."

"Sorry," she whispered. "I just..."

"shush."

"Just trying to be honest."

"don't be honest," he breathed as he leaned down over her and she felt her soul throb as he gently pulled at it with his own. "just be beautiful, and mine."

She could have to admit, such a tempting offer had never sounded so pleasant, and she let herself give into it. Sans had a way about him that made her ache, and she didn't really want to think right now anyway, not when she had him so close as he began to make love to her body and soul so intimately. With him, she could drop every defense and let him slip into her soul. Every time he could just sweep everything away, make it all disappear. It all became mirrors for the two of them as their souls mixed, reflecting their feelings and emotions to one another, running through them deeper and deeper until it blossomed into a moment so profound it made her forget who and why she was, only seeing herself through his love.

It was the only time in her life anymore when she could shut everything else out.

Frisk couldn't help but let herself be tempted to stay in bed for even longer than he threatened her with, feeling tired out but relaxed afterward. She'd fallen back asleep with him, curled up around each other and cuddling in their sleep. She didn't wake back up again until it was well past noon, her cell phone suddenly ringing loudly and jerking her awake.

She snatched it up off the bedside table and groaned when she saw the time. Shoot. Her husband sure knew how to throw off her time tables, the sexy jerk. Already the feeling of ease was gone, responsibilities worming their way back into her brain invasively. Inwardly she felt low for wasting time, the pleasantness of his actions clinging to her soul but with a weak grip. Guilt was not a strange sensation to Frisk and it had only grown over the years.

"Hello?" she asked on the phone, not even checking the number to see who it was. When no one answered, she felt confused. "Hello? Who's calling me, please?"

A dial tone suddenly sounded, as if someone had hung up, and she looked at the screen curiously. She'd hoped to see a number, maybe call back whoever it was, but it seemed to be a blocked one. Had someone dialed her on accident or had it been a prank call? Weird, had that happened last time? Four months ago was a bit of a ways to remember. Sadly it all kind of mixed together on her sometimes. She was only twenty-two years old, but she had memories that could have filled multiple lifetimes in her head, some memories faded away and some as clear as crystal to her. It could get confusing at times.

If she recalled correctly though, today she'd been on the phone already at noon with her secretary. She'd probably gotten the call before and the caller had just gotten a busy signal. No wonder she hadn't noticed.

"Speaking of which, I'd better escape before I lose even more of the day," she chuckled before she climbed out of bed. First things first, another shower was in order, as well as some brunch. She wasn't going to get anything done without something to eat first for some energy, that was for sure. Looking over at the snoring skeleton, she just shook her head and let him sleep. He'd just distract her again if she let him. He always seemed to get… well, frisky as he liked to put it, on the weekends.

Slipping on a robe and leaving for the kitchen after washing again, she rummaged in the cupboards for some of the instant coffee and began to make herself a pot. With a push of a button, it started to mix, pouring into the pot and she went to the fridge in order to grab something to eat. Ignoring the three containers of spaghetti that had been brought over courtesy of Papyrus, she simply pulled out the bread and threw it into the toaster. Seeing as she was usually too busy to cook and Sans' level of the culinary arts was just fine but most comprised of instant food, Papyrus saw it as his duty to come over to feed them both every few days but despite his years of cooking finally leading him to be able to make decent noodles, pasta got pretty old after so long. Toast was not the most filling meal but it was all she felt like bothering with right now.

"Better call Undyne first," she mused as she punched in the number. It rang for a second, a cheery little tune that sounded like an opening to an anime she hadn't watch herself but it still sounded familiar. Perhaps she'd overheard it while over at hers and Alphys' place. She frowned a bit when she didn't get an answer and dialed the number again. Still no answer. Was she busy? Well, she could just leave a message. "Undyne? Hello, it's Frisk. Look, the hearings over the policy chance in military enlistment is going to be starting soon, and I thought having a few material witnesses would be a good idea, to show as an example of monsters who were in a militaristic lifestyle already. If you could call me back when you get this message, I would really appreciate it. We can discuss if you want to be involved or if you know anyone else that might want to help out. Anyway, let me know whenever you can."  
She was just about to hang up when static seemed to fill the speaker, loud and harsh in her ear. The sound was so sharp that it hurt to hear it and she dropped it on the floor in surprise. Confused, she leaned over to pick it up. The woman hesitated for a moment before her fingers slowly curled around the phone and held it to her ear. The static wasn't nearly as loud now, sounding more like an old television in the background than anything else.

"Hello?" she asked into the static. Maybe it was Undyne and the monster's phone was messing up. "Undyne, is that you? Can you hear me?"

For a moment there was nothing else to it, and she was just about to hang up when something else seemed to slip through the noise of the static. It was hard to make out, a soft sort of beeping and whining. It was almost like some stretched tape or scratched CD.

"Hello?" she tried again. The sound stopped suddenly, silence stretching on and on with even the static fading away. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Finally the phone cut off, causing Frisk to stare at it in confusion.

"What in the world was that all about?" she asked aloud before putting her phone down on the counter. Odd, nothing was really going over well today. Maybe Sans was right. She had been working herself pretty hard lately. The hearing had been exhausting, even more so when she'd lost. Everyone had been so disappointed that she just knew she'd have to try again. Resetting wasn't always easy though. There were times that she could do it just fine and have no consequences whatsoever, but then there were times when it seemed to mess up slightly. Her memory would get sluggish, and sometimes Sans would realize things weren't matching up the way they should. Perhaps this was one of those times? It only became worse when she did large jumps like this, though it wasn't uncommon when she only went back an hour or two either. Somehow, Sans hated those even more. She couldn't count how many times he had told her that she shouldn't rely on this to do everything, that she was allowed to make mistakes and just live with them.

Easy for him to say though. Everyone just expected him to be lazy. She on the other hand had a reputation to keep. Everyone saw her as hard working and a sort of champion of justice and monster rights. To give up now would just be…

She sighed softly and ran her hand through her hair. It was just guilt that chewed on her, that was all. As important as her work was, she hated disappointing him. He always looked so laid back, but she knew the truth. This bothered him. It always had, and the fact she did it anyway couldn't possibly help. Perhaps he was hiding behind bad jokes and a lustful nature this morning, but that didn't mean he wasn't still upset. Years of marriage had made it easy to read him. Well, easier anyway. Back then it had been impossible to tell what he'd been thinking or when he was joking or serious. She hadn't known anything about him, how he just appeared anywhere he wanted to be or how he seemed to know when she'd reset, claiming to read her expression but knowing things that he just shouldn't.

Back then he'd clearly wanted to know more about her, and she him. He had easily been one of the biggest mysteries in the entire Underground. Even now, there were things about him she didn't really get. He never liked to talk much about his past or anything like that.

"i probably lived my life a million times, thanks to flowey. who knows what I have and haven't done? no sense to talk about it," he'd told her once when they'd still been dating, and that had been that. He hadn't sounded like he was angry for her asking but at the same time she hadn't had the heart to mention it again.

"Wow. I'm certainly feeling guilty now," she murmured. Okay, she didn't have to get any work done then. She would shoot an email to the woman, maybe send one to Alphys too just to be sure the message got to her girlfriend, but that was going to be it. She'd been preparing for this for a long time now after all, and the first few days were just going to be opening statements and the like. She was prepared enough to handle that without too much effort. Just like her husband had said; she could afford a single day off.

Buttering the toast and filling two cups with the steaming coffee, she put plenty of sugar into the second cup, along with a splash of cream, just like Sans liked it. With her own cup a nice black, she went back to the bedroom and placed the food and drinks on the bedside table before she shook the skeleton awake.

"Hey," she said softly. "Sans, come on."

"mmmm, five more minutes," he grumbled, burying his face into the pillow.

"Sans, it's noon," she informed him.

"one does not get up in this wretched world before three, at the earliest," he shot back playfully as he rolled over onto his back.

"Hey, I worked my butt to get everyone into this wretched world," she replied before she smiled and sat down next to him on the bed. "I was thinking, do you want to do something today?"

"hmmm? like what?" he asked her, his curiosity obviously piqued now.

"I was thinking that maybe you might like to go out, maybe to an amusement park or catch a movie. Something like that," she suggested. "We haven't been on a date in a while and I'd really like to go if you're up to it."

"what about work? don't you-"

She cut him off, pressing a finger to his teeth before leaning and kissing him softly.

"frisk?" he asked, sounding confused and maybe even a little uncertain. It only strengthened her resolve to want to do this.

"I want to be with you. Work can wait," she assured him. "I… I thought it might be nice, and… I want to promise you something. The resets, you are right about them. It's one thing to do it for this sort of thing. You might not agree, but I still want to try the hearing again. Still… I think I've been doing it too much. Maybe the stress is getting to me or something but I could take a break, and I think treating you would be a nice way for us to both relax. What do you say?"

"twist my arm, why don't you?" he replied before pulling her close into a hug. "yeah, that sounds really nice, hon."

"Great," the woman said before she smiled and picked up her coffee, giving it a sip. "Anywhere you want to go?"

"we could always hit grillby's for some lunch. no offense but just toast is not going to give me much energy," he suggested.

"There is some pasta in the fridge," she reminded him.

"yeah, I know that. why I'm suggesting grillby's," he chuckled. "i'll pay."

"This is supposed to be my treat to you, remember?" she pointed out to him but he just shrugged.

"eh, no big. i want to," he stated.

"Well, if you insist," Frisk answered before finishing off the rest of the hot drink. The heated liquid seemed to burn in a satisfying way as it was poured down her throat as she gulped it down, waking her up fully with more than just the caffeine. "I mean it about the resets. I shouldn't do it so much. I'm going to try to-"

"frisk, don't promise me you'll stop when we both know you won't," he sighed out.

"Well, maybe the smaller ones that aren't really important," she said hesitantly.

"should you even be doing it when it's not important anyway?" he asked her, to which her shoulders slumped. He kind of had a good point there. It really had become a habit for her. "look, i hate making promises myself anyway. i don't expect anything. if you want to stop and you do, then great. if not, then… ah, don't even worry about it, okay?"

Somehow the words made her feel worse, but she forced herself to smile and nod. It wasn't like he didn't have a reason to doubt her word. It wasn't the first time she'd promised to cut back on it. This time would be different though. She could stop. She would.

Honestly, if it was just her, she'd just put up with the side effects. A little headache once in a while or memories that got crossed over wasn't that big of a deal. It was certainly something that she could put up with, but she didn't enjoy him upset with her for any reason. They'd been together a long time, and while they were happy with each other and in love, there was just no shaking the fact that this issue had never really gone away.

The fact of the matter was that it was time to fix it, for real this time. Ditching work for a bit, since really she was just about as prepared as she could be anyway and now had the advantage that she knew what was going to happen, and spending some quality time with her husband sounded like the perfect way to start showing him how sincere she really was.

"so where you wanna go?" he asked her as the both got dressed. It was a rare move for her to slip on some jeans and a shirt, more often than not going for skirts or suits. "after lunch, i mean."

"There are some movies playing right now in the cinema," she suggested. "A couple romantic comedies look pretty nice."

"you mean the ones i love making fun of because how trite they always are? frisk, i could probably recite any plot they have in five minutes or less right here," he said, to which she smiled.

"Well, you could always just talk really loud and throw popcorn at the screen, only to teleport us out when someone complained," she reminded him.

"one time that happened."

"You left Papyrus."

"it was the best way to get out of the double date with mettaton, thank you very much," he replied, to which she could only giggle. Yeah, the ghost had been pretty peeved at that one, fuming about it for weeks afterward. He'd even gone to the movies without his robot body since he hadn't wanted to be recognized, a rare event for him, to spend time with Papyrus. It had bitten him pretty badly when they'd gotten kicked out before the third act and the employees of the place hadn't believed the little pink ghost when he'd been tossed out with the skeleton while yelling about how he deserved better because of who he was.

Publicly, Frisk has scolded her husband for being so mean by leaving the two of them there to catch the heat, but she couldn't help but snicker whenever Mettaton's back was turned. She liked him wonderfully as a friend but at the same time it had kind of been funny.

"maybe a sci-fi flick then?" he asked her. "i heard that one is on right now that's supposed to be about going into space and exploring the theory of relativity for the effect of time dilation in space."

"Okay, but you're going to have to tell me what's going on. You know that kind of thing flies right over my head."

"frisk, you did take science classes in college."

"political science is not the same thing as having three separate PhD's, Mr. Smarty Pants," she shot back playfully.

"well, ain't gonna dispute that."

She playfully slapped him on the shoulder before shaking her head. For being such a lazy, laid back guy, he sure could be full of himself at times. It was both endearing and annoying at the same time.

"Alright, ready. Let's go," she said with a smile, though she noticed him glance over at the bed. "What is it?"

"your phone," he pointed out as he jerked his skull in the direction of her cell still laying out on the sheets. "you're forgetting it."

"Honestly, I don't want to be interrupted," she admitted to him. "I'll send a fast email to try to get Undyne to contact me later, but that's it. She's probably out doing something anyway. Besides, I think I might have broken the phone on accident or something. There's nothing but static on the thing. I'll get it looked at later, and buy a replacement if I have to. It's no big deal."

"huh," he said before he smirked. "so just to be clear, i am in fact getting ambassador frisk dreemurr all to myself today?"

"Seems like you are."

"mmmm, well i guess all my 'dreemurrs' are coming true than."

Frisk laughed as she shooed him out of the bedroom, closing the door behind them as they left. She didn't hear the phone ringing again a few minutes later, sounding like a harsh scream in the room. It went on and on for several minutes, calling again and again, never seeming to die down. The repeated calls made the cell vibrate so strongly that it fell from the bed, bouncing on the floor as it hit the answer button for the static to once again fill the receiver, shrieking out as if calling for help.

But no one came.

End of Chapter 1

Well, there we go. First chapter down, more to come later. Thanks to each and every one of you who read this, and if you can spare a minute or two, reviews are greatly appreciated. Always nice to know when people enjoy your work after all. Thoughts, comments, suggestions, they're all welcome and I would love to see them. Even if it's just a comment that you can't wait for more, that's nice too. Thank you. Also, if you have an opinion on the font, let me know.

Last aside, this could use a beta reader. Things like Sans' lack of capitalization was making it very hard to write out, and I have a habit of skipping over mistakes when I read over it myself to try and make corrections. I need someone who can spot any possible errors and let me know, plus you get a preview of the story. Though, it does need to be someone who can read it and get it back to me quickly. If you think you would take longer than a day or two on average, then please don't offer. I like to post when I can, as quickly as I can since there are times I go weeks without writing due to work and the responsibility of running a household. I try my best to get my readers content as fast as I am able, and I wouldn't want to wait a week to get a chapter back when I do have time to write. But if you want, please let me know if you're interested in helping out. You'll get full credit and I'd love the help, plus the offer is always open to beta for you as well if you need one.


	2. Communiqué

First off, you have my most sincere apologies that this took so long. Really, there's no excuse for almost a whole year to go by without an update. The fact of the matter is I just got distracted by other things, some mundane and some very important, and it just got away from me. I'll try not to let it happen again. As much as I've wanted to do this story, I really should have been better about managing my time. I'm going to attempt to impose a schedule on myself and see if I can get better about writing this, trying to make sure I get out one chapter a week, but we'll see how that goes before I make any promises. More tentative plans than anything that I'm going to try to get better about balancing real life and my hobby of writing.

That all out of the way, I won't drone on any more. Please feel free to read and enjoy the chapter.

Entry #2

The human woke up a short time ago. It was much easier to calm him than I would have thought originally. I will attribute the original panic when he was being brought to the lab to the pain of the damaged caused from the fall more than the fact that he is now in the presence of monsters. I had theorized that we would be scary to him, but despite a bit of surprise when he woke, he is actually quite lucid. The situation was explained to him and he seemed oddly content when he was told he could never go back home.

Well, the child is very calm and collected. Surely a sign of maturity even though he still seems fairly young. Is this normal? Do humans mature at younger stages of development, or is this child just a very calm individual? I'm sure he should have some questions yet everything I tell him seems to do little to phase him. Humans have never been my field of study so my knowledge on them is entirely limited to texts and writings from before the Underground and the historical videos my assistant provides me with though they do not always seem…

There's hardly a point to that line of thought. My assistant is not known for her accuracy at times. It's something I have to work with her on. Until then, her data is always suspect and not worth reporting.

In any case, the child is doing well. I'm pleased to state the food provided to him healed him almost instantly. There was a slight momentary delay in effect but other magic seems to work just fine on this human. I must admit even though I've had little to do with this field before now, the prospect of learning more of this creature does fill me with a certain level of excitement. I will have to see what more I can find out at a later date. For now though, the royal family has to be informed of the child's state. I'm sure they'll want to see him soon.

Chapter 2: Communiqué

Fingers drummed on a desk, slow and methodical. A gradual and steady rhythm rapping over the smooth and polished wood, over and over. The sound was almost was almost hypnotizing, making it hard to ignore, though the sound was not as relaxing as it might have been under normal circumstances. In fact, it was getting downright hard to listen to. but it didn't seem polite to mention that out loud.

Frisk tried to ignore the sound instead, just waiting as best she could. It was fine. It was just going to be another half an hour and they'd be seen. Smoothing out her skirt, she glanced up at the wall clock, the ticking of the large white circle encased in a black plastic frame and glass almost matching the sound of fingernails drumming the desk a few feet away. The meeting was scheduled to start any moment now but she knew better. In fact, any time now…

"I'm sorry," the secretary said as she put down the phone she'd been talking quietly talking on. A Miss Smith, one of millions with that name out there, Frisk knew little about her even after all her time working with her. A crisp and professional woman with light blond hair always tied up in a tight bun and glasses set in front of her dark brown eyes. Never once had a single hair been out of place on the woman, the epitome of professionalism, even perfection if Frisk could say so. General Jegness had found himself a real gem when hiring her. It was why the ambassador would have known, even without having done this moment in their lives once before, what was about to be said next. "I'm afraid the General is running late in getting here. I just spoke to him. It's going to be another thirty minutes."

"Thirty?" Frisk asked.

"That is what he said," the other woman replied. "He extends his apologies. Apparently there was a minor accident on the road, but he will do his best to arrive promptly."

Frisk had already known this and would have tried to warn him in advance to take another path if she thought she could get away with it. However, casually telling someone to avoid a road that had yet to have an accident on it would probably have raised some suspicion. Her powers were very handy in several cases but it didn't mean using them all the time didn't come with risks. He'd been in the military for nearly twenty-five years now, serving longer than she had even been alive, and he already didn't think much of her mindset on monsters. The last thing she needed was him to be suspicious of her of any kind of wrong doing by telling him to avoid a route that he took every morning for him only to find out about a wreck…

Yeah, she didn't need to find out how he'd react to that kind of thing.

Still, she knew at least this wasn't his fault. As a man of the militaristic mindset, he fully believed in duty and performing to his utmost ability even with responsibilities he didn't care for. He didn't like her but wouldn't have been late to their meeting if he could help it. He was too much of a professional to act like that toward her, even if there had been once or twice it was clear he would have liked to toss her out of his office and never have to hear about her 'love all monsters nonsense' that she loved to spout, as he put it.

His politeness was more a maze than anything, sometimes treating her alright and sometimes not. Still, she knew he would be honestly remorseful about his delay. Frisk already knew what to say to ease his annoyance at the disruption of his schedule and use it to ease him into a more receptive mood of negotiation. The general was not the most pleasant of people but was a man of routine and it made him easy to predict, though not always easy to get him to agree with her. He was, after all, still very stubborn.

Honestly, it was just another one of the points of her job to deal with him in both his good and bad moments, and she was long since used to it. She'd learned just to accept it with a calm mind.

It didn't seem her companion agreed with her sentiment though.

"What do you mean we have to wait?! We've already been here nearly an hour!" Undyne yelled as she stood up suddenly to stalk over to the desk and slammed her fists on it. To Miss Smith's credit, she didn't flinch. She got people that were angry with the general all the time, after all. Frisk did notice though that she did back up in her chair just a little in order to discretely get out of reach of the fish monster in front of her. Frisk didn't blame her there. Undyne's claws were pretty sharp after all.

"Undyne, why don't we go take a short walk?" Frisk offered as she stood up. "We can take the extra time to discuss what we're going to say the general."

"What?! Oh come on! Fifty bucks says he's stalling and already in there!" Undyne proclaimed. "I could break the door down right now and prove it!"

"I think that might put a little damper on the diplomacy," Frisk replied, having to cover her mouth a bid to hide her smile. She had to appear professional after all, but her friend's reaction was kind of funny. Though, if the monster really did go and do such a thing it would not stay funny for very long. Ugh, she'd have to reset the whole nonsense all over again to avoid the man coming in to a broken door and she didn't really feel like bothering. "Trust me. He's a man of his word. He's not in there. Come on, it's only half an hour. Don't worry."

"Ugh. Fine, but I'm going to tell him what I think about this when we see him," Undyne grumbled. "The Royal Guard never would have been allowed to be so bad with punctuality."

"We'll be sure to use that as a point when arguing our case," she promised the fish monster as they walked out. The building was nicely decorated as they milled through the halls, offices of various military men sprinkled around with a few guards at a couple of doors. She largely ignored them as she made her way to a vending machine, though Undyne let her eyes roam over them without shame, clearly sizing them up. Unlike the secretary, several of them quickly looked away which caused her to snort and continue on. The monster didn't seem all that impressed.

"This happen a lot?" Undyne asked as Frisk handed her a bottle of water from the machine. She uncapped it and chugged the water down as Frisk sipped her own much more slowly. "Being forced to wait like this?"

"With General Jegness?" she asked. "No, of course not. He is actually a very decent military man, but that comes with its own pros and cons. He likes to keep his life neat and orderly, and is usually very good at keeping his word on anything he promises. However, most of the time his promises at me are… well, not very flattering. He doesn't like politicians at all and lets me know it often. Says we're all just blowhards who don't know who really has to work to keep the country running, that kind of thing. He seems to think it will make me nervous or something, put me on my toes and keep him in the spot of power for negotiations whenever we cross paths."

"Dick," Undyne muttered.

"He's not so bad. Just… set in his ways," Frisk replied. "Remember, he's been in the military since before monsters even arrived from under the mountain. Going from them not being around, to them suddenly appearing, getting rights and now wanting to join the military? It's kind of a big deal to him."

"You think he'll listen to reason?"

Frisk paused and looked down at her drink, trying to find her words. No, he probably wouldn't. He was stubborn and no matter what she said to him it never seemed to seep through. She'd already dealt with him on other matters. Government was always a big huge, tangled mess and it seemed like there were plenty of hands in the pie. Even when military wasn't involved with the matters she tried to tackle for monsters, she often saw a lot of the same faces. She could not longer even count how many times she'd had to go back and have the same conversation with him over and over again to try to find the right words that would make him listen to her point of view. It didn't even always work either. Again, he was just sometimes too stubborn for anything she could possibly say to make a difference.

"We'll just have to see," she said vaguely. "I'm actually hoping you can help out. He respects men and women of action, so I'm hoping he'll have some esteem for you and be more receptive. He doesn't hate monsters. He's just wary of them. If he can find common ground with you, we might just have ourselves an ally. Passing this law is going to fall a lot to public opinion and his word could sway things either way. For now, we're just going to have to wait to see him. Sorry though this is cutting into your day. I should have just have you arrive later."

"Forget it, nerd," Undyne snorted. "If he'd been on time and I'd been late then he would have just ushered you in and then complained when I wasn't there. Besides, it's not like I have anything else going on today. Alphys is busy with work and everything, but it's my day off so I'm pretty much free."

"Well, that's good," Frisk said with a nod of her head. "How's that going anyway? Her work, I mean?"

"Man, she's definitely enjoying herself. I never would have thought she'd want to actually make her hobbies into a career but she likes it, so more power to her," she said with a big smile. "I mean, being a professional translator in the anime industry doesn't exactly pay by the truckloads, but she made it pretty clear that she didn't want to go back to science. Besides, she gets to watch all those cartoons long before anyone else does so who wouldn't want to indulge?"

"Anything good?" Frisk asked.

"Couple of fighting animes. They're pretty cool, actually! A lot of action, though they don't stop to talk as much as others," Undyne grumbled. "It's like the animators didn't know you have to give the characters a chance to stand around and talk about their back stories and personal monologues. No respect for the classics."

"Less work for Alphys though."

"Bah."

Frisk smiled a bit and snickered at the sour look on Undyne's face. She seemed almost as upset about the pacing of the story as she was about this delayed meeting. A comment almost came of it but a sudden ringing of her phone cut her off.

"What the..." she said softly as she fished it out and flipped it open.

"What's wrong?"

"My phone. I could have sworn I turned it off," she said as she gazed at the screen. Tilting her head in confusion at the lit up surface, the number was not displayed, instead a simple message flashed at her. Blocked number.

Again?

"Um… one second. I need to see who this is," she informed Undyne. "Sorry."

"Oh sure. Go ahead."

With a flick of her thumb she flipped the phone open and raised it to her ear, though made sure to keep it a bit of a distance away just in case it shrieked at her like it had last time.

"This is Ambassador Dreemur. May I ask who's calling?" she spoke into the receiver. There was no answer for a long moment before a soft crackling filled the speaker of the device. Frisk didn't know why she had expected anything else. However, just as she was about to hang up and leave it for later, something seemed to come through.

It was faint, only barely there on the edge of her hearing. A soft whimper, weak and almost a hollow sound. It broke off only to start again, in different tempos and lengths as it began to get stronger and stronger as it morphed. Less and less did it sound like a groan yet it seemed to sound more…

Frisk honestly had no idea how to describe it. The tone was almost mechanical in nature but it didn't seem to quite fit. Despite beeping and a whirling sound in the background, almost impossible to pick up from the static, she somehow got the impression it was a machine making this noise. It was almost like a recording of someone's voice but so distorted and warped that there was no way to tell what the original message could have been.

A sigh escaped her when the line went dead, leaving her no closer to understanding what she'd heard than when this had happened yesterday. It was frankly confusing to her and more than a little strange.

Before the defeat of the law and her reset, she knew this had not happened. She'd been just sitting in the waiting room to General Jegness' office, waiting for him to arrive. There had been no call on her phone. She could not have possibly missed this somehow.

Things were progressing differently than she remembered and it she felt a little on edge because of it. As much as she knew the general was a man of routine, she was every bit a creature of habit too. It was a comfort to know what was going on in her life and right now…

She took a deep breath to calm herself and put her phone away after she was sure that it was off. It was just her phone acting up, nothing more. Whatever had happened to it, whatever was causing the malfunctions, she could deal with it at the proper time. There was any number of reasons her phone could be doing this.

She just wished she could think of one.

"You alright?" Undyne asked her. "You look a bit out of it."

"I'm fine. Just this cell phone," she replied with a wave of her hand, assuring her not to worry about it. "It's been acting up since yesterday. When I left you that message it just started spewing static at me, and it's been getting worse every since. I went out for the day with Sans and when I got back there were about twenty missed calls on the thing along with some kind of voice messages. All static and beeping and… I don't know what."

"Prank caller, maybe?" the monster suggested.

"Possible, but that doesn't explain why it started when I attempted contact with you," Frisk admitted. "It's… it's nothing, really. I just need to get it repaired."

The communication device getting a bit wonky was not something to get overly upset over. She used it a lot in her work. While it was more than a little strange that this was happening when she knew it shouldn't be, that was no reason to be overly worried about it. Fixing it would hopefully be easy enough, and even if it wasn't then she would simply have to get a new one. It wasn't like it was the end of the world or anything.

"After the meeting, we can head over to my place. Alphys could probably take a look at it," Undyne offered.

Frisk only laughed.

"I have full coverage on this. Taking it to my provider will be fine," she replied. "Besides, when I gave her my old phone she ended up putting a jet pack on the darn thing, remember?"

"To be fair, the Cooking with a Killer Robot episode was pretty cool," the fish chuckled. "What? Don't you want a jet pack again?"

"I can't say I can see how that would in any way help my current career or anything, no."

"Pfft. You're so boring these days."

"What? No I'm not."

"Uh… yeah, you are. You wear a suit dress to work every day, have a desk job and the most exciting thing happening to you is the fact your cell is having a speaker problem?" Undyne pointed out. "You're living in total drabsville, dweeb."

Frisk only rolled her eyes.

"Really feeling the love here, Undyne."

"Pfft. Well, I guess it's not such a bad job to have. You certainly are doing a lot for us," she admitted. "I mean, what if it had gone another way? What if we hadn't been able to get along and another war had broken out? No matter who won or lost, either humans or monsters just would have been gone. You're the link between us Frisk. If anything had ever happened, if we'd lost you-"

"Undyne, you don't have to say any of this," Frisk cut off with a sudden raise of her hand to stop the speech. This was not a pleasant conversation for her and it never had been. She appreciated the support, but Undyne was getting dangerously close to a truth that the human did not like discussing or even thinking about.

She couldn't explain the reason the words were so unsettling to her. Besides Sans, no one knew about her resets. It had been her closest guarded secret in the Underground and that had continued her entire life. She'd never wished to share it with anyone. It would have been too hard to explain to all of them, too great a burden to place on their shoulders. For them to know she had the power to erase parts of their lives and make them live it over and over again? Maybe they would have accepted it, or maybe it would have enraged them and filled them with horror. She figured on the latter.

Besides, it would bring forth certain questions she didn't want to answer, like how she was unable to truly die due to her determination. She didn't think she would ever have the courage to face the chance one of them might ask if they had ever succeeded in killing her.

Closing her eyes for a second, she tried to shake herself of the dark thoughts. Memories that she didn't like to visit clung to the back of her mind, seeping into her thoughts like a black smudge, staining her thoughts with events long since past. A sharp stabbing in her soul, the glowing spear embedded inside of her body as eyes widened and stared up at a triumphant face, large fangs bared at her in a ferocious smile before everything flashed into an explosion of golden light and she found herself at the foot of the familiar and small tunnel all over again, shivering in the strong winds and wanting to just run away from the fight that was bound to happen.

Sighing softly, she pinched the bridge of her nose and did her best to banish the unwelcome memories. That had all been years ago and had not been anything personal, even if it had felt like it at the time. She had gotten to know Undyne, laughed with her, cooked with her, set fire to her house on accident and in the end had become her friend and ally. That was what mattered.

It felt reassuring to look at the monster now and see a friend. Not an enemy, Frisk told herself firmly. A friend. They'd been so for years. Undyne had been one of the maids of honor at her wedding. She was kind and sweet, rough around the edges but loyal in so many ways. Those memories had come from a time Frisk had long since gotten past and away from. There was no reason to think about them.

"Frisk?" Undyne asked at the long silence.

"Thank you for the kind words," the ambassador said, seeing the intention Undyne had as she pushed the thoughts of their erased past back where they belonged. "It's not needed though. This is my job, even if you think it's a little boring. I swore back when we escaped the Underground that I was going to work my hardest to make life better for monsters, and that's what I'm going to do. If you want to thank me though, try to help me talk things out with the general. I think with your help I might have a chance of getting him to speak in favor of the proposal. As long as you don't lose your temper at him."

"Me? Lose my temper? When has that ever happened?" the former captain snorted.

"Uh… fifteen minutes ago when you were yelling at his secretary?"

"Well, yeah. Besides that though."

"This morning when your breakfast got ruined?"

"Hey! That package said the eggs could be microwaved in that stupid little plastic cup thing! They exploded!"

"Heh. You're right. What was a I thinking? Your the epitome of complete calm."

"Damn straight I am."

Why had Frisk thought this was a good idea again? She should have brought Doggo or something. With her luck, Undyne would end up throwing the man out a window. Finding common ground between the two might be harder than she thought it was going to be at first.

Oh well. If she'd ever learned anything in her life it was nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Speaking of the general, we should probably be heading back to wait for him. I'm sure he's already going to be in a bit of a foul mood by being so late himself, and I'm pretty sure he has other appointments today. If we're late getting back ourselves he's not going to make extra time for us to let us make our case. He'll just cut us off to get to the others who want his time and attention," Frisk mentioned. "Better if we're waiting for him when he arrives and not waste any time."

"You sure are going to a lot of effort to appease this guy. We really need his support that badly?" Undyne asked.

Frisk thought back to all the articles in the paper and interviews in the news during the debates over this law. A lot of them had been with General Jegness and he'd had a very successful campaign to keep monsters out of his military. For a man who had no love for politicians, he certainly had been good at swaying a crowd to see his point of view. He certainly hadn't been the only one to oppose the law but he'd had one of the loudest voices on the topic. If there was any way to make this go another way, he was the key to changing it.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that we do," she said firmly as she led the female monster back to the waiting room.

#-#

"S-so… how did it g-go?"

Frisk wanted to collapse as she walked into the living room of the apartment that Undyne and Alphys shared, and she would have if there was anywhere to actually sit. The place wasn't all that small but it was cramped beyond all belief. Comics and manga littered the many surfaces of tables, bookshelves and the few chairs sitting around and lone couch, along with workout equipment everywhere on the floor that took up just as much space. It wasn't really messy or dirty per se, but disorganized would be a good word for it. Their main room had long since seemed to have turned into a sort of personalized storage area for the both of them, their kitchen and bedroom in better shape but only just barely.

The reptile monster called it organized chaos, and as she was always able to lay her claws on anything she was looking for in mere seconds, Frisk could only guess that was true. The odd system seemed to work for the two of them just fine.

It still left the ambassador without anywhere to sit though and that was making her feel kind of cranky on top of the morning she had already had.

"Uh… that well, huh?" Alphys asked from the expression on the human's face.

"Huh? Oh no, it went fine," she answered and gave a little smile. It was a tired one but enthusiastic. Undyne had been great, just like she'd hoped for. She'd sat down with the general and discussed all sorts of things. Her duties as the head of the Royal Guard, her previous experiences as captain and everything in between. Even little things like how she'd decided who got what shifts of guard duties and decision making in recruitment had been gone over in great length.

Fisk had been right to have some faith in her friend for being able to handle this. Undyne might have a temper and easy to fly off the handle, but she'd still been a professional soldier. She'd been able to keep her cool relatively well.

It would have been perfect if not for the ending.

"Oh man, Alphys! You should have seen it! I was freaking amazing!" Undyne declared as she slammed the door shut. "That guy was so freaking stuffy I didn't think I could have stood another minute talking to him! He probably hasn't seen even half the action I have!"

"Well, she hid it well at least," Frisk sighed, trying to look on the bright side.

"After the meeting was done, I just had to give him one last good impression of us monsters and what we're capable of," the monster explained proudly. "Give him a taste of some pure, raw power!"

"Oh-oh my. What did y-y-you do?" her girlfriend asked.

"Well, there was this really cool tank outside the complex, right? You could see it right from the office we were talking in."

"An antique tank, actually," the ambassador pointed out.

"Yeah, real old and stuff. I just couldn't stop looking at it. It was so cool looking that it inspired me," the fish laughed.

"What did you do?"

"She leaped out his window and lifted the thing over her head," Frisk muttered.

"Ha! It was easy!"

"I'm lucky you didn't break it. Antique tanks can't just be replaced at the supermarket, you know," she stated.

"Ah, come on. I put it down just fine. Didn't even get a scratch. It certainly impressed that old man of yours. And to think you thought he wouldn't be able to see the upside of monsters serving alongside humans," Undyne said. "Pffft. Doubt he thinks that now."

On that note, Frisk wasn't really sure. She didn't think she would use the word impressed. Shocked more like it. He hadn't said anything when he'd turned from the sight out his window of the monster with the very heavy war machine held over her head and had just silently shown Frisk out. She had a feeling he'd been too shocked to really say much of anything, but it was clear his mind was going to be going a mile a minute when he had time to process it.

She hoped that it wouldn't lead to anything bad. Most of the meeting had gone just fine. Undyne hadn't gone and punched him or anything, and it was already common knowledge that some monsters were insanely strong. If she was lucky this wouldn't lead to any bad repercussions. Part of her, a very large part in fact, wanted to just go back a couple of hours in order to stress to her friend that any feats of strength were completely unnecessary. It would have been perfect then but her promise to Sans had made her stop from considering it too deeply.

After all, who knew? Maybe it would work out in their favor. Even if it didn't, Frisk could try to smooth it over if she had to. Undyne hadn't caused any damage or anything. It had just been a little bit of showing off. That was just what she did. The human would feel a bit more confident if it had not happened at all. As it was though, it seemed good enough to allow herself to proceed. There was still four months to work with until the vote on the matter. The odds of this one little incident affecting things that much were pretty remote.

Granted, it itched at her instincts to go back just a little and fix it. It wasn't really needed though. At least she hoped not anyway. Even if it was, there was no way she could risk breaking her promise just a day after making it. Sans might notice and he'd know what she did. Even if he didn't, she would know and it was just as bad if not worse.

"Well, g-good to know it went smoothly," Alphys said with a smile. "I have to admit I was just a teensiest bit worried. Nothing you've ever told me of General Jegness has been very flattering."

"Guess I do complain about him a bit much. He seemed more mellow during our talks today though," Frisk admitted. "I should have brought Undyne to meet him ages ago."

"See? Told you I left a good impression on him."

"I hope so. We can't afford for you not to have."

"You worry too much, Frisk. It'll be fine," the monster assured her. "Anyway, while you're here, want some grub? I can fix up something to eat while Alphys looks at your phone for you. You've got to be hungry by now."

"Is something wrong with your phone?" Alphys asked.

"The speaker is broken I think. It keeps making all these garbled noises and I'm getting a lot of calls from a blocked number. I think someone is trying to get in contact with me but it's impossible to understand what they're saying," Frisk explained.

"Sure it's on your end?" the former scientist asked as she took the cell from Frisk as it was handed to her, looking it over with a critical eye. "Doesn't look broken but I could crack it open. See if some wires are loose or something."

"I think it's probably on my end," she admitted. "It's mostly been with this number but it happened with a call that I tried to make too yesterday. I was planning on replacing it if I had to but if you can get it working again it sure would save me a lot of hassle. Getting a new phone and storing all my contacts and information into a new one right before I had to dive into this military issue would be a huge pain."

"That d-does sound kind of in-inconvenient," she agreed. "Okay. I'll see what I can do. Want me to take a look at it now?"

"If you don't mind."

"I'll go ahead and get some whipped up in the kitchen while you two see to that," Undyne offered. "How's some instant noodles sound? We got beef, shrimp and chicken."

"Oooh. Chicken for me," her girlfriend stated with a smile.

"I think I'll have shrimp," Frisk agreed.

"Right. Won't be long."

While Undyne went to the kitchen to get them all something to eat, Frisk followed Alphys back into the bedroom. It was also pretty much her work area, computer set up and a bookshelf full of tapes and notebooks crammed together. Frisk could only guess deadlines for a new anime were coming up soon and the reptile was hard at work to get her commissioned translation done in time.

"I hope I'm not imposing. Undyne insisted I come here to get you to look at it. I could have just as easily gotten tech support from my provider to handle it," Frisk said.

"Oh, it's no trouble. You know I love this kind of stuff," she replied with a shaky sort of laugh. "Besides, it's always nice to see you, Frisk. Things are going to get busy for you pretty soon, s-so who knows when we'll have a chance to h-hang out?"

"Mmm, I guess that's true," she admitted. Work swamped her pretty easily on the best of days. The whole monster embassy was a pretty small staff. It was really just her and her assistant, and as much as M. K. did his best to help… Well, he was enthusiastic about his work, every bit as she was, but he'd never stopped being so clumsy. He really did help with the workload in his own way, often taking on duties of talking to monsters about their woes or questions on legal advice, or scheduling meetings and keeping things running smoothly for her, though he'd never been the best at things like paperwork given the obvious circumstances.

She really would like to hire another person soon. They were both going to end up very busy before she knew it. She'd tried to keep the work to just the two of them the last time, but maybe additional help might be in order. It couldn't hurt her chances after all.

"In any case, do you think you can fix it?" Frisk asked, figuring if she had to get a replacement it should get put on the list of her errands sooner rather than later.

"Mmm, probably. If it really is just a speaker problem than that shouldn't be too big of an issue. Worst case scenario is that it might need some new parts,"

Alphys said. "Though I think I can handle it without doing anything like that. I'm going to listen to the voice mail messages first though, see if I can hear exactly what seems to be wrong. M-mind if I give them a listen?"

"Oh no. Go right ahead. The password to get into that is my birth year."

"R-right. Okay. Let's see here."

Alphys typed the numbers in gently and listened to the phone. Frisk herself had already heard each of the messages at least once already. She'd been hoping one of them would have come in clear and she would have had some clue about who was trying so hard to get in contact with her. Sadly it had been no such luck. Though maybe the monster would have a better shot at it. Alphys was much better with machines than she herself could ever hope to be.

"Hmm. It does sound p-p-pretty distorted," she hummed as she listened to the first couple of messages, replaying them both a couple of times. "I'm not sure if this is your speaker t-though. If it was, it would be messing up in random spots. The first message just keeps glitching out at the same points over and over again, m-making the same sounds. Whatever the issue is, it w-was recorded, so that means it was probably the caller's problem."

"But it made a lot of fuss when I called Undyne too," Frisk pointed out.

"You sure?"

"Of course I am."

"S-sorry!" Alphys suddenly cried out, as if she'd just been snapped at instead of the calm tone Frisk had used. "I didn't mean to in-insinuate that you… I mean that don't you know your own b-business."

"What do you mean?" Frisk asked. "You didn't do anything of the sort."

"Uh… right. S-sorry," the monster replied.

"Alphys? Are you okay?" she asked. It was in no way strange for the monster to stutter or be nervous but this seemed extreme even for her, especially over something so small as a phone acting up. "Really, I'm a bit worried now."

Alphys glanced down at the device in her claws before sighing softly and glancing away.

"I… I don't know. All of a sudden I-I-I just feel a little on edge. Weird, right?" she chuckled out before shaking her head. "Anyway, I can run a few t-tests on it, plug it into my computer and run some diagnostics on it. B-before that, I'll try to make a few test calls. Do you mind?"

"Sure. Go ahead," she replied with a nod and a patient smile. Whatever was making her friend nervous, she wanted to do her best to put her at ease any way that she could. "Any idea how long it might take?"

"An hour, maybe?" Alphys guessed. "Maybe a teensy bit longer?"

"Enough time to get something to eat then. Do you need to be with the computer when it's running the diagnostic?" she asked.

"Oh, n-no."

"Great. We can eat with Undyne then while it's doing that and hopefully by the time we're done it should be finished. Thanks again for being willing to do this for me. Really, I don't know what the issue is with this thing. If you could fix it or even figure out the problem it would be a huge help," Frisk said encouragingly, to which Alphys blushed deeply.

"A-ah. Oh w-wow. It's n-nothing, really," she said happily, even as she stuttered, clearly moved by the praise. Seemed she wasn't so tense anymore now. Frisk was pretty happy for that. "T-tell you what. Why don't you try to m-make a call? See if anything goes wrong?"

"Sure. I should check in with Sans anyway to let him know where I am. This trip to your guys' apartment wasn't really planned after all. He should be getting off for his lunch break around this time anyway," she replied as she dialed the phone before holding it up to her ear.

It rang several times and the human was about to give up and try someone else' number instead when she heard the distinctive beep of someone answering.

"Heya," Sans said on the other side of the line, thankfully coming in crystal clear. Looks like Alphys was right about nothing being too wrong with it. "What's up? Done with your meeting?"

"Yes, all finished," she answered. "I ended up accompanying Undyne to her apartment for lunch and I wanted to check in and let you know where I was."

For some reason only silence answered. Oh darn it, had something happened after all?

"Hello?" she asked.

"W-what's wrong?" Alphys whispered.

"I think we got cut off," Frisk said. "Hello, Sans can you hear me?"

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I got distracted," he replied. "Just checking the cameras one last time before I head off for lunch."

"Oh geez. I was worried for a second," she grumbled before realization hit her. "Wait, are you still working? I'm sorry. I guess I called too early."

"Nah, forget about it," he assured her. "My relief literally just walked into the office. It's cool. Hey, tell you what, how about I come and-"

The phone suddenly screamed out in static so loud even Alphys covered her ears, flinching at the noise.

"Oh geez! Oh no!" she cried out as she snatched it up, hanging up quickly. "Yeah, this thing definitely has some issues to it."

"Darn it. It cut him off," Frisk said. "Can I borrow your phone real fast? I'll call him back."

"S-sure. Go ahead."

"Thanks," she said as Alphys handed her own over. Frisk took no time to call him again, though it went straight to voice mail. He had to be trying to call back her own phone or something. "Hey, honey. I'm sorry. My phone is acting up a lot right now so I just borrowed Alphys to get back in contact with you. I didn't hear what you said when you got cut off, but when you get this message just call her phone if you want, okay? Anyway, I'll talk to you later. Love you."

"Well, so much for it being an issue on the caller's end," Frisk sighed out as she put down the borrowed phone. "Any ideas? You don't think it's a virus, do you? Like I caught it from the person calling me?"

"Doesn't work like that. Maybe if you'd gotten a text message with something attached to it," Alphys mused. "Did you?"

"No, nothing like that."

"Hmm, weird. Well, I'll hook it up for now," she said as she started fiddling with her computer, pulling out a wire to connect the cell to it and then start opening a few programs. Frisk looked over her shoulder in curiosity, but it all looked too foreign to her to make heads or tails of it. "H-how about we go join Undyne for lunch, eh? She should be finished cooking by now."

"Sounds good to me," Frisk replied before they made their way to the kitchen. The auroma of ramen was wafting in the air, smelling pretty nice actually. It was downright hard to screw up instant cups after all, even for an enthusiastic and extreme cook like the former head of the Royal Guard.

She sat at the small table and ate her lunch while the couple talked. Mostly tuning them out, she focused on blowing on her noodles to cool them off and taking small bites of the food. Part of her was listening in for Alphys' cell to ring, just in case Sans tried to call. She wasn't sure what he was about to say but it had sounded like he'd been thinking about stopping by. Though, if he was going to then he'd clearly changed his mind. He could have teleported here by now if he'd wanted to join them for lunch. Maybe he'd been saying something else or had changed his mind. Well, she would see him tonight so it wasn't a big deal.

Still, for some reason she wished he'd call back. After this morning it would be nice to hear his voice again for longer than a few moments. Oh well.

Frisk looked down at her noodles, the food swirling gently in the styrofoam cup with the tiny shrimp and vegetables. An odd feeling was starting to fill her, crawling in though her mind and settling down just out of sight. She couldn't shake the thought she should be somewhere, doing something. It made no sense though since she'd made sure the morning was completely clear for her meeting. She didn't have anything later on today except to make sure some letters and memos were sent out, a few calls to make from her office as well, but nothing else than that. For the moment she should be relaxing, letting herself just enjoy lunch and the company of her friends.

Why hadn't Sans called back? He really should have. Had she called him last time? Putting her cup down, she rubbed at her forehead and tried to remember if she had or not. It was such a small little detail there was no way to recall or not. She hadn't had Undyne with her last time so she hadn't ended up at her apartment. What had she done for lunch? There was a small diner not far from where the general worked. Frisk was fairly sure she'd gone there, but more because that was often her stopping place if she was nearby rather than a certain memory. The coffee wasn't very good, often burned, but the service was fast so she could often get food to go if she was in a hurry.

Had she been in a hurry then? The meeting with General Jegness had run long… mostly arguing with him. She'd been in a rush to get back to the office but…

No, she had called Sans. She could remember now. She'd asked him if he minded handling dinner himself because she was probably going to be late getting home that night. Frisk had been so frantic that day, things feeling hectic and horrible, like it was already going all wrong. It had gone all wrong. Ugh, she should have just reset from that meeting alone. Why hadn't she just grabbed Undyne and brought her along the first time? She'd wasted four months for nothing.

She made Sans go back four months. She'd made everyone go back four months. She should have been smart enough to fix it the first time. She should have-

"Frisk?"

"Huh!" she gasped out as she looked up to see the two monsters staring at her. "Is… is something the matter?"

She didn't like the way the two glanced at each other. Their expressions were worried. Was something wrong?

"You just… you weren't responding at all," Undyne said. Her voice, normally so firm and strong, sounded concerned. "Totally spacing out. You okay?"

Was she okay? Frisk honestly didn't know. For a moment she'd felt completely at peace with everything, but then it was like everything was wrong that she couldn't fix it. A small little nagging worry had just formed inside of her only to start snowballing as she got lost in thought. Maybe the date she'd had with Sans hadn't been enough. Maybe she should have tried to relax a little more. It was clear stress was starting to get to her.

"I guess I just spaced out," she said with a shake of her head. "Sorry. You know how it is. Trying to make sure all my ducks are in a row for work. I didn't mean to ignore you guys."

"I-it's fine," Alphys replied.

"So anyway, what were you saying?" Frisk asked.

"Just wanted to know if you were full," Undyne replied. "You were staring at your ramen for a while."

"Oh… um," she said as she glanced down at her cup of noodles. They weren't even steaming anymore and looked a little plump in the water. How long had she been out of it for? Honestly, she was letting herself worry way too much if she was acting this bad. Maybe another little break was in order. Perhaps Sans would like to do something around the house to help her relax like a couple board games or a movie. If there was anyone who knew how to let nothing ever get them down and just relax, it was him.

She sighed softly before shrugging and gave a bit of a smile.

"Sorry. I guess I'm not very hungry," she said. "Didn't mean to make you cook for nothing. I'll just throw this away."

Frisk stood up quickly to toss the food in the trash can but Undyne's chair scrapped over the floor as she stood up and grabbed the woman's wrist.

"Undyne?" she asked, a little uncertainly as the monster moved in close and peered at her carefully. "Undyne, what is it?"

"You sure you're okay, Frisk?" the monster asked. "This isn't the first time that you've spaced out today, you know. I can't help but start to think something is bothering you."

"It's just the work load," she admitted honestly. "It's been… getting to me, I think."

"O-oh dear. Y-y-you shouldn't overw-work yourself, Frisk," Alphys stated. "Your health is important. If you need to take a break then-"

"No. No, I can't," Frisk said with a firm shake of her head. "I can't. Everyone is counting on this law getting passed. I couldn't possibly try to stop right now."

"Alphys is right though," Undyne reaffirmed. "Tell you what, when your phone is up to specs again, you send me your schedule. I'll see what I can do to help."

"But your work," Frisk protested.

"Bah. Oh come on, I'm just working as a personal trainer right now. I think I can work something out with my cleints. Besides, you're busting your butt to just get us monster into the military. I think that's way more important for my career in the long run," she laughed loudly with only the confidence that the fish woman could muster up. At times it still surprised Frisk just how lively her friend could be. "Look, just let me help out, okay? You already asked once after all, and that turned out great!"

Frisk wasn't so sure that the word great was the best way to describe how the meeting had gone, but she didn't know it had gone poorly either. Still, it wasn't like the two of them didn't have a point. If she was so out of it that she couldn't even keep herself focused enough for a casual conversation then what hope did she have for the coming trials ahead? She could use the assistance and this was a personal investment for Undyne anyway, along with a lot of other monsters. Doing this alone had already failed. What did she have to lose by accepting the help of one of her closet friends?

"I have been working kind of hard lately," she admitted. "Sans was saying the same thing just the other night too. I guess I should be more conscious of this kind of thing."

Undyne frowned for a moment before reached out and scooped the human up effortlessly. Frisk gave a loud meep in surprise but it was not listened to or paid the slightest bit of attention to.

"Come on. We're going back to the waiting room so you can sit down," she said in a tone that made it clear she did not want to be argued with.

"U-Undyne, I'm just a little distracted, I'm not hurt or anything!" Frisk protested as she felt her cheeks get hot at the idea of the fish monster carrying her around like she was just a little kid again. She hadn't been a child for years! She was fine!

"Don't talk back, brat," she said with a full grin. "You have some more time until the phone is done anyway. Isn't that right, Alphys?"

"Y-yes, right," the doctor replied, nodding slowly.

"So you might as well rest up a bit, Frisk," she said as she carried the flustered woman to the living room. The human ambassador for all of monster kind, savior of the Underground, and the holder of the power to save and reset, all but powerless at the might of a stubborn monster to force her to take a break.

She was starting to see that as a pattern in her life.

Oh well. Frisk supposed it didn't matter if she spent her lunch break in the kitchen or sitting down on the couch. Either way she was going to have to wait on her cell, just like Undyne had said herself. Still, it was more than a little embarrassing to be touted around like that.

Not that saying anything to Undyne about it would in any way dissuade her.

"Thank you," she said when she was set down after Undyne had cleared some stuff off the couch, trying not to sound ungrateful or gruff at all. She didn't want to seem like she didn't appreciate the effort, even if the execution could have used some work. Still, expecting Undyne to be subtle was kind of pointless. Once she set her mind on something, she just did it and that was all that there was to it. After so much time in company, honestly Frisk should be used to it by now.

After that, Alphys just went back to the bedroom to get back to work, or so the woman assumed. Honestly after all this fuss, she wondered if maybe she shouldn't have gotten a professional to work on it after all. At least then she wouldn't have been forced to sit around like a child. Ironic really, considering she could probably remember living more years than either Undyne or Alphys had at this point.

Not that they knew that.

Not that she'd ever let them know.

She ran a hand through her hair. Yes, those were the thoughts she had been precisely trying to avoid in the first place. She really should stop letting her mind wander.

"So, you really want to help out with my work more?" she asked, mostly just to distract herself.

"Yeah. Well, at least for this case," Undyne replied. "I think I could probably arrange more character witnesses for you too. You know, from the old Royal Guard? You said this was going to go to court, right?"

"There is supposed to be a long hearing before the vote is cast, yes," Frisk replied.

"Great! We'll be sure to get plenty of monsters to talk about it then!"

Frisk had to admit, it was worth a shot, though she would have to make sure she prepped any monster she brought into it thoroughly considering what their job had formerly been. The other slain humans… it was a very strict secret of what had befallen their fate. If it had ever gotten out that they'd been killed for the sake of monster's freedom, peace would have been impossible when the they had emerged. Getting the monsters who had specifically been tasked with hunting those humans on the stand would be tricky. It's why she had avoided it last time, but it seems she would have to risk it. Well, they all knew already it wasn't okay to talk about it so it should be fine as long as she worked out the details of what would be talked about and avoided at the hearing.

"Okay then. Go ahead and get a list prepared of monster you think will be able to help. We'll go from there," she replied with a nod. "Thank you for being so helpful in all of this."

"Of course!" she boasted as she playfully punched Frisk's arm. Though, even playfully, it still throbbed a bit. Ow. "We're all counting on you, after all! It's the least I can to help out!"

"Heh… yeah," she said softly. "Everyone is counting on me."

And they wondered why they had to urge her to take breaks when they said things like that too? Oh well, it was true. Everyone was counting on her. Even if no one said it, they all knew it was the case and she did too. There was nothing to be done about it.

"Frisk?" Alphys asked when she walked back into the room, Frisk's cell phone held in her yellow claws.

"Oh, hey Alphys. How's the phone look?" she asked. "Where you able to figure out what was wrong with it?"

"Uh… well, no. I don't think so," she admitted. "According to the diagnostic, there isn't anything wrong with it at all."

"That can't be right. You hear it yourself when it filled with static," Frisk said.

"Yes, I did. I-I just mean the diagnostic didn't catch anything," she said. "So there's no internal program where it comes to the programing. No apps are messing up or anything is what I mean. I would say it could be a physical p-problem, like your speakers shorting out but… well… like I said before, I don't think that it would catch on a recording if that were the case. It would be messing up on different parts every single time. Instead it seems that the static is part of messages, would make it look like the issue was with the one who called you, but..."

"But I had the same problem when I called Sans and Undyne," Frisk concluded, to which Alphys nodded.

"Sorry. I'm not sure what the issue could be then," she admitted. "Unless… you think S-Sans maybe was pranking you somehow?"

"He was with me when the calls happened so I don't think he could have done it. Even he's not that good. Besides, he would have taken credit by now if it were a joke," she replied.

The reptile's shoulders slumped a bit at having to seem to have run out of possible theories.

"S-sorry. I guess I wasn't m-much help after all," she said sadly.

"Oh, Alphys. It's okay. You did your best. At least you know it's not an issue on my end," she said with a smile.

"Yeah. Though… I was going to ask something. It's about the messages. This might sound a little weird but… I-I think that I-I've heard something like it before. They sound oddly f-familar," she stated. "Would you mind if I maybe borrowed it a little listen to them some more?"

"Familiar?" Undyne asked. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not… entirely sure," she admitted hesitantly. "I can't quite put my claw on it. It's just… familiar. Maybe I've heard this issue before and just not remembered it clearly. Bratty and Catty had me work on their electronics all the time after all, including their phones. Maybe this is something similar. I think if I h-had a chance to listen to the messages a bit longer, I might be able to figure out the i-issue for you, Frisk. Can you spare your phone for a bit?"

"I think that depends on how long it would be," she stated. "I mean, I will need it for work a lot."

"Oh, d-don't worry about that. I'll just keep it until tomorrow," she reassured her. "You c-c-could pick it up in the morning before you had to go anywhere, p-p-promise. I'll just record the messages onto my computer and try to analyze them there, okay?"

"Well, I guess that will work out," she admitted. It's not like she couldn't survive the night without the thing, and if this wasn't figured out then she was sure that it would drive her crazy for a while now in curiosity in just who was trying so hard to get in contact with her. "I'll swing by with Sans in the morning and grab it before work."

"G-Great!" she said enthusiastically. "I'll be super careful with it, promise!"

"I know," Frisk stated with a smile.

"Well, if that's all, I guess I should get you back to work," Undyne said with a grin. "You ready to go, Frisk, or was there anything else you needed?"

"No, I think that's it," she admitted. "Thanks for all the help, you two."

"Of course! No problem," Undyne said. "Come on, let's go."

Before the two headed out, the fish monster was sure to give her girlfriend a quick kiss. Frisk had to admit, the way she squealed when it happened was rather cute. Those two never got old, that was for sure.

She just hoped that whatever was going on, Alphys would be able to figure it out.

End of Chapter 2

I adored writing Undyne in this. She was absolutely fantastic, but considering she's one of my favorite characters then I guess that's just to be assumed. Alphys was a bit more difficult. I wanted to have the stutter there obviously but did my best to keep it from coming up every sentence since I didn't want to overdo it. Now though I'm not sure now if I did it enough. On the other hand, every time I thought about adding more to it then it just seemed like unneeded padding.

Thoughts on it? Did she come alright, or should I tweak her speech a bit? If so, then in what way? I'd appreciate the opinions.

Also, just reviews in general. I always love to hear what my readers think about my work.


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